While crypto projects continue to mushroom unabated, potential investors in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space have become increasingly wary of bad-faith actors taking advantage of the relatively unregulated nature of crypto to pilfer funds from unsuspecting crypto enthusiasts. Silicon Finance is a new startup that seeks to rejuvenate investors’ confidence by bringing them closer to a safer crypto experience.
Founded by Michael Obekpa and Moses Akula, Silicon Finance is Africa's first initial DEX offering (IDO) platform. Crypto has taken the world by storm, but few projects have emerged from the African tech space. Silicon Finance is seeking to not only encourage other African developers to follow suit, but it is also looking to be the perfect launching pad for them.
With scams and rug pulls blighting the initial coin offering (ICO) market, Silicon Finance will create a decentralized, permissionless, crowdfunding platform offering better and immediate liquidity at every price level for projects looking to launch tokens and access funds immediately.
Apart from being more susceptible to scams, initial coin offerings, initial exchange offerings (IEOs), and security token offerings (STOs) are usually hampered by a lack of control and investor protection, without which project developers cannot be subjected to due diligence. Silicon Finance is the first crypto project to combine a launching pad, a swap decentralized exchange (DEX), a charting platform, and a mobile wallet, all aimed at providing liquidity for new projects without the debilitating issues affecting the more traditional crypto funding methods.
Core Features of the Silicon Finance Ecosystem
The Silicon Finance ecosystem is anchored on the following four primary features:
SiliconPad
This decentralized IDO platform will allow holders of Silicon Finance’s native token to jump on exclusive crypto offerings at an early stage. SiliconPad will send presale tokens and accrued BNB to PancakeSwap to create a liquidity pool using its smart contracts. This feature is Silicon Finance’s attempt to minimize scams and rug pulls to ensure a better experience for crypto investors.
SiliconChart
This is the second feature of the Silicon Finance platform, and it will function as a livestreaming dApp for the transactions and price actions of Binance Smart Chain (BSC) tokens. BNB and Silicon Finance's native token holders will also enjoy exclusive functional capabilities.
SiliconSwap
The third pillar of Silicon Finance, SiliconSwap, was built to enable users to manage liquidity pool holdings and to instantly swap one crypto asset for another from networks like Polygon, Ethereum, and BSC. Going forward, there are plans to integrate even more networks into SiliconSwap, and even to add a function that will allow users to buy crypto using a fiat currency of their choosing.
Silicon Mobile App
Available on both Android and iOS devices, the Silicon Finance mobile app will seek to bridge the gap between traditional business models and decentralized finance. The app will also feature an in-built wallet that will allow users to manage their holdings and carry out microtransactions using different cryptocurrencies.
KYC and Smart Contract Audit
In keeping with what has now become standard practice in the crypto space, a know your customer (KYC) process was carried out on the Silicon Finance team by a German-based audit firm, SolidProof, on December 15, 2021. The ownership was verified and all team members checked out. An audit on the project’s smart contract was also performed by QuillAudits, giving it a clean bill of health.
$SLK Token
The $SLK token will power the Silicone Finance Platform. $SLK is a BEP-20 membership utility token, meaning it will have endless use cases across the Silicon Finance ecosystem.
Token Allocation
$SLK has a total supply of 100 million units, with the initial supply pegged at 40 million tokens. $SLK is currently valued at $0.09, while 1 BNB is worth 6,777 $SLK.
The initial $SLK supply was distributed in the following manner:
- 8% was put into a private sale where applicants received $SLK at highly discounted rates.
- 10% was put into a seed sale.
- 10% went into the public sale on Unicrypt
- 4% is earmarked for the future development of the Silicon Finance project.
- 8.8% was given to the team behind the Silicon Finance project.
- 7% went to the project’s strategic partners.
- 5% was awarded to the project’s advisors.
- 6% will be used to finance marketing activities and for listings on centralized exchanges.
- 41.2% will be used for staking emissions.
The 8.8% of $SLK’s initial supply allocated to the Silicon Finance team will be locked in a liquidity pool for at least two months before being vested over 12 months. The share of the circulating supply going to the project’s partners and advisors will also be locked in a liquidity pool for four weeks and vested for 14 months thereafter.
Once the soft cap target is reached, 3% of BNB raised in the public and private offerings will be split equally between the project team’s address and the platform’s staking contract to reward $SLK holders.
Currently the team is holding their Token Presale through Unicrypt.
Roadmap
Silicon Finance has so far successfully accomplished most of the targets laid out in the initial phase of its roadmap. A public sale was carried out on January 9th, 2022, on Unicrypt, with other public presales scheduled to be carried out on the platform’s own SiliconPad.
Silicon Finance is currently in the middle of an awareness and marketing campaign aimed at growing its community and attracting more investors.
The next phase of the Silicon Finance roadmap will begin with opening staking pools and listing of $SLK on major crypto exchanges. The project will also endeavor to forge more strategic partnerships, especially with venture capitalist organizations and media platforms. SiliconChart is also scheduled to go live during this phase of the roadmap.
In the final stage of the Silicon Finance roadmap, the team will look to integrate the project with more decentralized exchanges besides launching SiliconSwap. They will also continue building more partnerships and spread even more awareness about the project. In this phase, the Silicon Finance team will also look to launch their mobile app in tandem with a trading platform. Finally, the team will also try to make even more innovations around the Silicon Finance ecosystem to increase the project’s utility and value.
Final Thoughts
Silicon Finance is not only banking on revolutionizing the crypto crowdfunding space, but its own success and the system it is building could hopefully encourage other African developers to take the next step in their crypto journeys.
Initial offerings in the crypto space are risky for investors because there are no guarantees that their funds will be available, but Silicon Finance’s two key features, the provision of an easy and transparent presale process and the automatic locking of liquidity after the presale, could potentially go a long way in addressing the concerns of crypto investors and bringing back a level of trust in the DeFi space.
Main website: https://thesilicon.finance
Launchpad: https://thesiliconpad.com
Exchange: https://siliconswap.finance
Telegram (English): https://t.me/TheSilicon_Finance
Telegram (Chinese): https://t.me/Silicon_Finance_CN
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Silicon_Finance
Instagram: https://instagram.com/silicon_finance
KYC’d Pre-sale link: https://app.unicrypt.network/amm/pancake-v2/ilo/0x873bD74F160329aF58C9185798AbE26467e62cdd